Textiles that include fiber, such as carpet, are often exposed to a variety of different substances that stain and soil, and ultimately diminish their appearance. These staining and soiling substances can be hydrophilic and/or hydrophobic in nature.
For this reason, stain and soil repellent chemicals are often applied during the production of textiles, including carpets and textile products used for upholstery, bedding, and other textiles. Anti-soil treatments of such textiles have primarily been based on variations of highly fluorinated polymers, which, among other effects, tend to reduce the surface energy of the fibers resulting in a decrease in the soiling of the textiles. A considerable disadvantage of such fluorinated polymers is their high cost, due in part to the raw material supplies required for their production. Moreover, there is an increasing interest in the carpet and textile floor covering industry to replace the presently used C6-fluorochemicals with fluorine-free soil resistant and water repellent products. Eco labels such as “Blue Angel,” which is awarded by RAL gGmbH, St. Augustin, Germany and others are continuously reinforcing this trend.
Non-fluorinated polymers or materials have also been developed to treat textiles, especially carpets, to reduce soiling. Examples include silicones, silicates, and certain silsesquioxanes.
However, these non-fluorinated compositions generally do not provide the same soil and water-repellent effects on textiles compared to the fluorinated polymers. They are, however, much more readily sourced from raw materials, thus further improvements using silicon-based materials is advantageous.